Travel Richer : Money Tips from the Fencox Family That Actually Help
More Money-Saving Tips Our Fencoxers Swear By
Last time we shared money-saving travel tips, the response was huge. Which makes sense – most of us like finding smart ways to make our travel budgets go a little further.
There’s a quote that always does the rounds: “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” And while it sounds like the sort of thing you might have considered tattooing during your gap year, the sentiment holds up. Travel is valuable – just not free.
We’re all about meaningful, life-enriching moments on the road, shared with interesting people. But metaphors only take you so far. Great experiences can’t fund your trip deposit, and airlines still don’t accept golden memories as payment for long-haul flights (at least not last time we checked).
So yes – travel, no matter how or where you do it, still involves spending money. And when you’re trying to make the most of every trip, a few smart savings here and there can make a real difference.
Which brings us back here. This time, the tips come straight from Fencox guests and trip leaders – people who’ve learned where to save, where to spend, and how to make adventure travel go further in the coming season. Think of these less as penny-pinching rules, and more as smart habits that add up over time. Here are the winners…
Magic away money fees with a card that’s right for travel
Why did that latte in Lisbon cost the same as a small yacht? How did a single ice-cream on Copacabana drain the bank account? Either you read the menu wrong or you’ve been hit by the FX trap. Well, our Fencox guests have spoken and they’ve dubbed the pre-paid travel card the closest thing to a forcefield against all that jazz. In simple terms, it comes down to how you pay while you’re overseas.
These are cards that let you spend money abroad without the stinging bank fees and prohibitive exchange rates. You can pre-load them before you fly or add money as you go using an app and online banking. Easy.
Wise (formerly TransferWise) seems to be the crowd favourite. It’s a card that offers what’s known as the mid-market exchange rate on all your money conversions. That means you actually get what you see on Google, and only pay a small upfront fee on larger trades. Fencoxers particularly like this one since you can hold multiple currencies at once, or, better yet, simply load your home currency and it will auto-convert at the best possible rate whenever you spend.
The big draw here is transparency – fewer surprises, and more control over what you’re actually spending.
Wise also comes with an adjoining smartphone app that will ping you whenever you spend – it adds a security layer, but is also ideal for anyone who “accidentally” buys three gelatos a day and needs to keep track of the budget.
There are now heaps of other options out there. Revolut, Starling and Monzo all have their own products, each with pros and cons. Just keep an eye on the fine print. Things to watch out for include added FX charges on weekends, limits on the amounts you can withdraw from ATMs, and one-off fees for getting the card in the first place.
Refill, don’t buy
Environmental consciousness is a core principle of ethical travel, and even the small things count. That’s why we recommend that every guest brings a refillable bottle – many of you already do – to any destination that has drinkable tap water.
And it turns out that this particular travel hack is as good for your wallet as it is for the planet. Bottled H2O can run as high as $10 AUD a pop in some touristic parts of major European cities (**makes accusing eyes at Venice**), so you can see how that might clock up over the course of a three-week trip.
Naturally, we don’t expect you to rely on the tap everywhere. While public water is perfectly safe in lots of places on the planet, there are many countries where it’s a no-go (Pro tip: Water Well has a handy hover-over map for checking local safety before you brush your teeth).
Beat the rush – secure your flights
We know – spontaneity is fun! That’s why we whisk our groups through street markets of Havana and let you loose amid the cookhouses of Luang Prabang. You just never know what’ll happen and that’s where the excitement lives. However, according to Fencoxers, leaving your logistics to chance isn’t always the best move for your budget.
We’re not surprised. In our experience, Aussies and Kiwis are consistently the first to book. It’s a strategic move – they aren’t just bagging the best prices, they’re securing the extra lead time needed when travelling from the other side of the world.
And it’s not just traveller lore, either. Hopper, a world leader in big-data flight analysis, has crunched the numbers. The conclusion there is that airfares should be locked in at least 25 days in advance, while the sweet spot for tracking the best airline deals starts as early as 150 days out.
There’s another upside that has nothing to do with airfare prices. Other Fencoxers have pointed out that booking early can share the financial load. You won’t have to fork out a ‘gazillion’ dollars in one lump sum, you simply secure your spot with a deposit. This gives you time to sort out the rest, bulk up the travel fund for when you do jet off, and still stay ahead of all your day-to-day expenditures while your countdown begins.
Head to the back streets
Rick Steves – the guy who has a passport stamp from literally every cathedral, café and taverna in Europe – is famous for his “Back Door” travel theory. It’s basically a fancy way of saying: ditch the tourist zones. A call to peel away from the big sites and head inland; to swap Notre-Dame for smoky jazz joints in Paris’ offbeat neighborhoods, and to trade the Colosseum for secret Roman trattorias that smell of deep-fried artichoke and passata.
It’s a philosophy we share. Rick, you had us at “back.” And it turns out this way of travelling isn’t just richer – it’s often more affordable, too.
This is the Fencox way and we’ve seen the magic of this approach through the eyes of countless travellers. But years of feedback have taught us that peeking under the surface isn’t just about the richness of the experience – it’s also about the value.
Fencoxers are quick to point out that the local side of life is often far lighter on the wallet than the mainstream alternatives. That could be something small, like a local-priced beer in an industrial-chic dive bar in the Budapest Jewish Quarter, or something significant, like a welcoming homestay in the jungle tropics of Laos.
Roaming the smart way
Paying hefty international data charges while traveling is so 2010. In this age of forever-connectivity, staying linked to the great digital ‘spiderweb’ is easier than ever. And cheaper than ever.
Say hello to the eSIM – it might just change the way you travel. Fencoxers everywhere love them, and it’s easy to see why. They’re essentially a digital version of an old-school SIM card that lives in your phone’s settings and runs through an app on your phone. You download your app of choice, choose your plan, and bingo – you’re connected the moment the wheels hit the tarmac. You can get global packages that give you data across multiple territories, or country-specific packages that work in just one destination.
The result? Less faffing around, and more time actually enjoying where you are.
There is a trade-off, though. The other option is to simply buy a local SIM the second you land. The upside? It tends to be a little cheaper, have more reliable internet, and more generous data limits (shout out to all you serial Instagrammers out there!). The downside? It takes time – to spend your first hour in a new country hunting for a kiosk, and fiddling with paperclips and phone settings?
Not us. Get us straight to the local coffee hangout.